


Ice Cream Will Fix It

by BooBerryPancakes



Series: College AU [2]
Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 14:37:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6961024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BooBerryPancakes/pseuds/BooBerryPancakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patrick had a shitty day, but his roommate and the cute RA from before are there for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice Cream Will Fix It

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, based off something (or actually a combination of events) that happened to me.

“Come on!” Frank said, “Talk to me Stump.”

Currently, Patrick was curled up on the dingy green couch they had in the lobby of his building, watching _Harry Potter_ on ABC Family. He didn’t care that it was 7 pm and that he was already in his pajamas, nor did Patrick care that it was 7 pm and he was sipping on a cup of coffee. Patrick wanted a warm drink because those were always comforting, but Joe had finished the last of the hot chocolate k-cups on Monday and the college’s bus system only stopped by Walmart on Fridays.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Patrick told Frank, voice slightly annoyed but not angry. “I just want to begin enjoying my weekend, since I don’t have any classes on Friday.”

“Correction,” Frank replied quickly. “You want to sit here and brood and not tell me what’s wrong when something is clearly bothering you.”

In response to that Patrick just shrugged and sipped his coffee.

Frank groaned and dropped his head on to Patrick’s shoulder. “Patrick, come on.”

“Fine,” Patrick started, because Frank annoying him was waking the emotions he was currently trying to stifle. “I had a math test today that I was fucking prepared for, but my class starts only 15 minutes after the one I have before it that always runs late and is on the other side of campus. Despite all that I still got there 10 minutes before class started, but she had already handed the test out to people who had gotten there early so I went ahead and started on my own. About 2 minutes later I ask my professor if she wanted the answers in decimals or fractions, to which she tells me ‘I’ve already answered that question so you figure it out.’ Class hadn’t even technically started yet!”

“Oh Patrick, that really sucks,” Frank says sympathetically. 

“Yeah, and on top of that when I went back to my room to put on some sad music and get a self-pity party over with, the fucking girls downstairs kept banging on their ceiling because I guess playing quiet music at 4 in the afternoon is just completely unreasonable.”

“That’s shitty, haven’t those girls been giving you and Joe trouble for a while now?”

Patrick nodded, “They called twice to complain about us last night, and one time I answered the door for the noise complaint with my fucking sleeping mask on.”

Frank chuckled at that, “I mean, obviously you weren’t making that much noise so the sleeping mask helped your case right?”

Patrick groaned and then threw his head back, slinging the arm not holding the cup of coffee over his face to cover his eyes. “Yeah but the RA who was there was like really cute and as if obviously being a freshman didn’t already make him way out of my league, then wearing a fucking sleeping mask and having a fucking seafoam green blanket wrapped around me certainly did.”

“Oh I love that blanket Patrick, I don’t think any true college student would judge anyone for their blanket as long as it was comfy.”

Patrick sighed, moving his arm and staring down into his half empty coffee cup. “I don’t know, those girls are annoying but I mostly feel bad for the RA’s since they had to deal with them.”

“Yeah, I feel bad for the RA’s too.” Patrick snapped his head up upon hearing the familiar voice. At the end of the long couch stood RA Pete from the previous night (or early that morning) with a shit-eating grin on his face.

Patrick flushed instantly, “I, um. Oh my gosh, uh. Hi.”

Pete’s smile impossibly widened. “Hi,” he replied as he walked over. 

After just staring right back at Pete for a few moments, Patrick heard Frank clear his throat which reminded him of his friend’s presence. “Oh, uh Pete this is my friend Frank. And Frank this is um… Pete,” Patrick said, weakly gesturing towards Pete on his last word.

“Nice to meet you,” Pete said holding out his hand.

“You too man,” Frank replied as he shook Pete’s hand. “Listen Patrick, I gotta go.”

“You do?” Patrick said, some nervousness leaking into his voice.

“Yup,” Frank said, smirking at him as he stood. Patrick tried to send him panicked glances to convey that he should stay but Frank either misunderstood or decided to ignore them. “Bye!” Frank said with an annoying amount of cheer in his voice. Patrick sent death glares at him as he walked away.

“So,” Pete started, falling into Patrick’s line of sight as he sat down in Frank’s now vacant spot, which placed Pete very close to Patrick, their legs almost touching. “I couldn’t help but overhear your little rant. I want to say that brooding isn’t a good look on you, you know to motivate you to cheer up or something? But it seems it’s impossible for that face of yours to not be cute.”

Patrick’s face, which had at some point returned to its normal color, began to heat up again. “Well, thanks, I uh-“

“Patrick!” Joe called, now approaching the pair and God damn it, Patrick didn’t even know that many people at college yet, why were they all suddenly appearing on the one night he had planned to sulk and watch TV?

“Uh, hey Joe,” Patrick greeted, not sure if he wanted to be left alone with Pete or saved from Pete. 

Joe seemed almost oblivious to Pete’s presence however, throwing an orange envelope into Patrick’s lap. “Mail for you!”

Patrick looked down at the envelope in confusion, rarely did either of him or Joe check the mailbox because he was pretty sure neither of them had gotten any mail since starting college. “Uh, thanks Joe,” Patrick said, picking up the envelope to inspect it more closely. “There’s not a return address on this. Actually, there isn’t even an address, just my name.” He looked up at Joe again, just to see that Joe was still watching him expectantly. When he turned to Pete to see if he had any possible explanation, Pete only shrugged. 

So Patrick slowly opened the envelope, and pulled out a very old looking card with a picture of a small cartoon lady on top of the mountain shouting, ‘You Did It!!!’ Further confused, Patrick opened the card, expecting some kind of motivating note but finding only Joe’s messy scrawl. 

“You did a hard thing, here’s ice cream,” Patrick read out loud. His words were followed by a carton of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream thrown into his lap, and when Patrick looked up in the direction it had dropped from, his gaze was met by a grinning Joe.

“I heard you playing that one album you play when you get upset, and I figured the banging from the girls below probably didn’t help. I would’ve gotten something more elaborate than ice cream, but I had to go to the convenience store on campus so my options were limited.”

Patrick was touched to say the least. “Joe, I-“

“I’m sure you wanna say thanks or whatever, but you have a hard time of keeping that simple and I have to run to the library. Plus, I’m sure you don’t want Pete here assuming we’re more than roommates like everyone else on campus already does, so I’m gonna go ahead and go. See ya at home!” And just like that, Patrick was watching Joe’s retreating figure.

“Wow,” Pete said, pulling Patrick’s focus to him. “You’ve got an awesome roommate.”

“Yeah,” Patrick said, smiling fondly down at the ice cream. After a moment of silence Patrick looked back up at Pete, and in a moment of bravery said, “Hey listen, so like, I can’t really eat this on my own and if we make the mini fridge cold enough for this to not melt then our water filter will freeze. So anyway, would you maybe, uh, wanna come up to my room and eat this with me?”

Patrick had looked back down at his lap about halfway through, and when he finished he slowly looked up at Pete again, who was smiling wide at him.

“And watch TV maybe?” Pete asked.

Patrick, somewhat suspicious of whatever Pete was about to say, replied, “Uh yeah sure, we can watch Netflix on my laptop?”

“Hm,” Pete began, holding his chin and looking up in exaggerated contemplation. “You want to eat the ice cream while it’s cold and watch some shows on a streaming service. In other words you’re asking me to,” Pete paused, taking time to look back over and make eye contact with Patrick as his smile slowly spread across his face again, “Netflix and chill.” 

“Oh my _God_ ,” Patrick shouted in surprise, playfully hitting Pete on the arm. Despite himself, Patrick was genuinely laughing at the lame joke and Pete was chuckling along.

“But seriously,” Patrick said once he caught his breath, giving Pete a shy smile. “Would you like to?”

Pete returned the smile, “Yeah I would.” Pete slowly reached over and squeezed Patrick’s thigh comfortingly. “I really would.”

 

Joe got back to his and Patrick’s dorm around 20 minutes after midnight. He had been at the library until it closed, and he still had more work to do. Damn, he needed to listen to Patrick and stop putting off all his homework for his 3 hour Friday English class till the last minute. 

“Patrick?” he called out, more quietly than he normally would. Patrick usually stayed up later, but he also usually greeted Joe when he first walked in and Joe didn’t want to wake him if he was asleep.

There was no response, but Joe could see light coming from Patrick’s closed door so he knocked on it faintly before slowly opening it, trying to be quiet. He and Patrick had an open door policy with each other, even if their doors were closed. 

The first thing Joe noticed was that Patrick had left a record out, which he never did, and that the record had finished and was now spinning silently. Joe figured that was kind of stupid of him to notice that first since the next thing he noticed was Patrick asleep in his bed with the RA from the other night, the one Joe hadn’t been entranced with, spooned up close behind him. 

Joe quietly took the arm off the record to stop it from spinning; he didn’t trust himself to put it away, knowing how particular Patrick could be. But also knowing how particular Patrick could be, Joe had to do something about the left out record.

He looked over at Patrick and Pete once more before turning out the light and slowly closing the door. It would be harder to stay up late to finish his homework without Patrick being there to encourage him and occasionally bring him snacks, but Joe would definitely be high fiving him over this the next day at the first chance he got.


End file.
